text:
A former foster child recalls his time in "the closest thing that Los Angeles County had to a public orphanage."
Hope's Boy. By Andrew Bridge. Hyperion, 306 pp., $22.95.
By Janice Harayda
Like Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone, Hope's Boy deals with a subject so tragic you wish the book were more credible. Andrew Bridge says he spent 11 years in foster care, part of it in "the closest thing that Los Angeles County had to a public orphanage," after being snatched from his apparently psychotic mother on a street by authorities who made too little effort to reunite them after placing him with another family. And he makes a fair case that those things did happen to him.
But Bridge undercuts his credibility by describing early childhood and later events in implausible and gratuitous detail, including pages of line-by-line dialogue. Generations of creative-writing professors have said in effect to their students: If you want to get your character out of a parking lot, you can just have him drive away. You don't have to say that he got out his keys, unlocked the door, and climbed in the car. Hope's Boy is full of such padding and is consequently far longer than necessary. It is also overwrought. Bridge shows his love of purple when he describes going to bed at night when he was in kindergarten: "Tired, my mind emptied slowly into the raven night of the room's deepening corners."
Yet amid the surfeit of detail, Bridge leaves many questions unanswered. Why doesn't he give the real name of his high school, where he clearly did well? Why does his say nothing about his time at Harvard Law School and instead go from his acceptance in once sentence to his graduation in another, though his book carries his story well into adulthood? Why doesn't he mention the religion of the woman who served as his foster mother for 11 years, whom he says the Nazis had imprisoned in a Dachau satellite camp for children?
Bridge says he has changed "identifying details." But if you change details, your story still needs to cohere. It's natural to assume, for example, that a Holocaust survivor would be Jewish and Judaism would play a role in her life. And if this was true of his foster mother, Bridge doesn't say so. He portrays her so unflatteringly that you wonder if he ignored the religious issue for fear of appearing anti-Semitic. But because he says his foster mother spent four years a labor camp, the issue is there, anyway. His silence just makes things murky. And Hyperion has billed his book as a memoir of "one boy who beat the odds." Don't we have a right to know if religion helped or hurt him along the way?
In an epilogue, Bridge tries to put his experiences in a national context by drawing on court records of the mistreatment at Alabama's Eufaula Adolescent Center in the 1990s. This final section describes practices such as confining children for indefinite periods in six-by-nine foot cells, abuses that led to the appointment of a court-ordered monitor for Eufaula. Brief and direct, the epilogue is the strongest part of the book, because it reflects a principle too little in evidence elsewhere: Real tragedies are often so painful to read about that they are best served by understatement.
Best line: "Over half a million American children live in foster care. The majority of them never graduate from high school, and overwhelmingly, they enter adulthood only semiliterate. Fewer than ten percent of former foster children graduate college; many experts estimate the number is closer to three percent. Thirty to fifty percent of children aging out of foster care are homeless within two years."
Worst line: Another example of Bridge's overwrought prose appears when he describes the school bell that rang daily to announce the start of classes at his high school: "Every morning, the claxon was loud enough to taunt the boundaries of silence. Pricking thousands of eardrums, the blast walloped though the wide corridors lined with amber-colored lockers, then with nothing to stop it other than exhaustion, it spread over the large campus, across the lines of concrete and grass, dicing through the chain link fences. Muted by it, students and teachers halted their progress for the slightest moment, then once it ceased, proceeded onward with their new day."
Published: February 2008 www.HopesBoy.com
Janice Harayda is a novelist and award-winning critic who has been the book editor of the Plain Dealer and a vice-president of the National Book Critics Circle www.bookcritics.org.
© 2008 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.


text:
Peace activist arrested for trespass while waiting to speak to Michelle Obama
Razia Ahmed, 64, of 2015 W. Cimarron Drive was led away in handcuffs from the downtown convention center about 12:45 p.m. when Peoria police arrested her on a charge of criminal trespass.
"I just decided this was my chance to ask Obama's wife what her husband was going to do," Ahmed said in a telephone interview from her home later Monday. "It wasn't already planned."
Ahmed, a native of Pakistan, was protesting the treatment of prisoners at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba at the U.S. District Courthouse earlier Monday.
Donning orange jumpsuits and black sacks over their heads, like those worn by detainees at the naval station, Ahmed and about 10 members of the Peoria Area Peace Network decided to move their demonstration to the Civic Center, about a block away, where a crowd had gathered to hear Michelle Obama's fund-raising speech.
When they entered the lobby, a Civic Center employee told them to leave, said Jack Ryan, the group's leader. Ahmed, wanting to talk with or simply pass along a message to Michelle Obama, knelt down and decided to stay put.
"She said 'I'm not leaving, I would like to see Mrs. Obama,'" Ryan recalled Monday night.
Security officials eventually called police to have Ahmed removed after they repeatedly told her to exit the lobby, police reports stated. Though the Civic Center is a public building that receives tax dollars, it is operated by a contractor, making it private property.
A message seeking comment left at the home of Debbie Ritschel, general manager of the Civic Center, was not returned Monday evening.
Ahmed was later told that Michelle Obama would not meet with her, though she was invited to send her a letter detailing her questions.
"By then I was already in handcuffs ready to be taken to the police car," she said.
Friends of Ahmed posted her $118 bail and she was released from jail about four hours later. She is scheduled to appear again in Peoria County Court Aug. 28.
Frank Radosevich II can be reached at (309) 686-3142 or firstname.lastname@example.com.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Don't worry, we won't spam you or sell your information.
By signing up you agree to all the Terms and conditions.
GoCare is dedicated to compassionate crowdfunding, providing easy online fundraising and support for humanitarian causes.
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Tel: 03 - 2203 3920
Phone: (+60) 19 - 6696 278
Now support:


text:
Spec-D LED Tail Lights LT-RAM09GLED-TM
- Our Price: $213.99
- Shipping:FREE SHIPPING
- Part Number: LT-RAM09GLED-TM
- Rating: (18)
LED Tail Lights
- Part #: LT-RAM09GLED-TM
- Bulbs for Reverse not included
- Chrome Housing with Dark Smoke Lens
$213.99Free Shipping
Select your vehicle details above to ensure item compatibility.
- Keep your style hot and your lights bright with Spec-D LED Tail Lights
- Economical solution to your tail light needs
- Direct factory replacement: made to fit your vehicle exactly
- Full plug-and-play: connects directly to your vehicle's wiring
- Waterproof to protect sensitive electronics
- Available in a variety of colors and styles, depending on your vehicle
- Street Legal
- 90-Day Warranty
There is no back-end component more important to you and your car than your tail lights. They should be bright to alert other drivers of when you are stopping, but they can look cool, too. Get the best of both of worlds at a great price by picking up Spec-D LED Tail Lights.
These tail lights provide brilliant LED shine and fresh style that compliments any vehicle. A great choice for any budget, Spec-D LED Tail Lights are designed to be direct factory replacements, meaning they can be used as a means of fixing what is broken or as a way to upgrade your ride's look. Whatever your reasoning, these LED tail lights will attach directly to your vehicle's system, with no rewiring or soldering required. Better still, the entire system is waterproof and fits flush to your tail light cut-outs, protecting sensitive electrical equipment. Available in a wide variety of vehicle-specific colors and styles, it's easy to find the perfect tail lights for your vehicle and taste.
Don't go broke for style and functionality in your tail lights. Do the smart thing and pick up Spec-D LED Tail Lights. Backed by a 90-Day Warranty.
Spec-D LT-RAM09GLED-TM fits:
- 2009-2021 Dodge Ram 1500
- 2010-2018 Dodge Ram 2500
- 2010-2018 Dodge Ram 3500
There are no reviews for this application.
See All Spec-D LED Tail Lights Reviews.


text:
Joanna Figueroa
Fresh Vintage
Written by Allison Engel
The quarterly pattern booklet that Fig Tree Quilts designer Joanna Figueroa creates for her fans is called Fresh Vintage, and the term perfectly defines her style. So it's no surprise to find that Joanna herself lives in a fresh vintage setting-a 1938 northern California cottage updated with plenty of charm, not to mention gallons and gallons of paint in her signature background color of buttercream. Getting just the right shade of cream to set off each room was her biggest design challenge, jokes her husband Eric. "There are 30 quarts of different shades of cream-color paint in the garage," he says.
Photo: Joanna and her family live in a charming cottage in California.
An Inspiring Studio
The couple, their three children (Ben, Zack, and Ella) and their dog, Emma, have lived in their San Francisco Bay area house for five years. Two years ago, they added a second story to provide a studio and his-and-her offices for Joanna and Eric, a political strategist. Every room reflects Joanna's unique color combinations, such as cream set off with apple green, peach, and aqua, and is decorated with original and vintage quilts and carefully chosen accessories.
Photo: Inspirational fancies become a tableau in Joanna's studio.
A Home Full of Color
Every room reflects Joanna's unique color combinations, such as cream set off with apple green, peach, and aqua, and is decorated with original and vintage quilts and carefully chosen accessories.
Photo: Design inspiration can come from anywhere for Joanna, including her ever-growing treasure of ribbon, laces, cards, and stationery.
Treasure Hunter
Collecting is her passion. She haunts flea markets for objects that get her creative pulse racing, from vintage postcards to old suitcases. Once the treasures arrive home, she arranges them in vignettes around the house. "It's my organized chaos," she says. "I feel the need to put everything in its place."
Photo: Found objects are stacked thoughtfully on a side table by the dining room window.
A Love of Quilts
She bought her first vintage quilt, a pink and green beauty, at a garage sale for $7. "Almost all my antique quilts have come from garage sales and flea markets," she says.
Photo: Using fabric collections she designed, Joanna made this pair of quilts-"Prairie Sweets" (on top), which appeared in Fresh Vintage #6, and "Patchwork Girl."
Everything on Display
Tatters and stains don't faze her. She displays her finds, no matter what the condition. She still delights in a quilt's careful stitching or clever use of color.
Photo: A quilt rack at the top of the stairs holds many of Joanna's own quilts, with a few vintage quilts mixed in.
Time to Design
Joanna does the bulk of her designing sitting at a desk in front of a wall cluttered with bits of ribbon, fabric swatches, photos, pencil sketches, advertisements, greeting cards, and quotations. "I look for items with color combinations I like, such as cards, gift wrap, pottery, and vintage textiles," she says. "I'll also play with colors using little stacks of fabric from my stash."
Since she doesn't have a large design wall, Joanna's quilt designs take final shape in the living room. There, she lays blocks and fabrics on the floor, then stands on the couch and peers down on the design, rearranging at will.
Photo: Joanna, at home designing in her studio.
A Twist on Tradition
Her quilts tend to be fresh variations on traditional pieced designs, incorporating both small-figured prints and romantic florals. Often, her quilts are accented with simple appliqués. Titles are drawn from nature and foodstuffs, such as "Nutmeg Stars" and "Dandelion Wishes", which uses fabrics from her fabric collection, Dandelion Girl for Moda Fabrics.
Photo: A meandering stitch accents "Summertime Stars."
The Softer Side of White
If a quilt is pieced on a white base, the result is a brighter and clearer look, while if it's on gray or muslin, the muted tones of reproduction and Civil War-era prints work well. Cream backgrounds, which can span the spectrum from light ivory to a true buttercream, give a softer, warmer, and more antique feel according to Joanna, and the cream sets off colors, making them sparkle.
Photo: "Checkerboards in Bloom" showcases feather quilting in its blocks.
Getting Started
A political science major with a minor in art, Joanna began quilting as an adult when she took a drop-in class at a mall, turning out a Log Cabin project. She made only four or five quilts before deciding she didn't like following other people's directions and would rather design projects herself.
In 2004, while she was teaching and designing at the Thimble Creek quilt shop in Concord, California, Moda Fabrics asked her to come up with a color palette for a line and some designs-in three weeks. "I was in the right place at the right time," Joanna says.
Photo: A sunflower quilt (originally a Fiber Mosaics pattern) on the wall of the living room is one of the "five quilts I made from someone else's pattern before starting to design my own," Joanna says.
A Strong Following
Her updated classics have hit a chord with quilters and spawned her well-received Fresh Vintage quarterly booklets. Her advice in the first issue summarizes why she feels that choosing a color palette is key to a project's success.
"Regardless of whether it's a gift, for my own home, or for a pattern, that starting place is always a 'feel.' … I am most often inspired by a color combination I see somewhere, usually other than a quilt. … If you train yourself to look for color combinations wherever you go, you will be expanding the amount of inspiration you find a hundredfold. …Find your inspiration anywhere, refer back to it constantly as you choose your palette, and then stand back and watch as wonderful things happen before your very eyes."
Photo: Joanna's sons, Ben and Zack, read Harry Potter in the living room. "Caramels & Cream" hanging behind them is one of Joanna's designs.
Joyful Quilting
For more info on Fig Tree Quilts, visit Joanna's Web site or read her blog.
Photo: Designer Joanna Figueroa auditions textiles using the "falling fabrics" method.


text:
AquaBrowser Library ® - WTO Library
Welcome to AquaBrowser Library.
Enter your query in the text box above and press Enter (or click 'Search')
In the central panel, you will get search results, ranked by relevance.
Click on a result for a full view with holding information.
The word cloud on the left shows you related terms, spelling variations and translations.
Click on words in the word cloud to explore the contents of the catalogue.
Refine shows you what your search results contain.
Click on any term to focus and narrow your results.


text:
Please wait whilst we load the sale. Alternatively click the following link if the sale doesn't load in a few seconds. Enter sale
Learn how to register, how to place your first bid and how to increase your bid limit. We'll guide you through each step of the bidding process.Read our step-by-step guide
To place a bid, you'll first need to register using our simple and secure registration form. New bidders are given a £5,000 bid limit, which can be increased on request.Click here to register
Reduce your buyer's premium! Be the first to reach the reserve price and we'll reduce your buyer's premium from 20% to 18% if you win.How it works
To increase your bid limit please submit your request before 10am GMT on the sale day to enable us process your information prior to the lot closing.Request an increase


text:
Prefinished Butterscotch Shoe Molding- 3/4" x 1/2" About Shoe Moldings: Transitions between a wood floor and a vertical surface under cabinetry. It also serves as a substitute for quarter round when space is limited. Questions? Please allow us to assist you with any questions and/or concerns. Click here to go to Flooring 101, or call 1-800-HARDWOOD to speak to one of our sales representatives.
We will find the best price for you.


text:
Cookie Policy
This website uses cookies to make its service as much effective and userfriendly as possible.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small pieces of data which allow us to compare new visitors with previous ones and to understand how users surf our website. We use the data collected through the cookies to offer you an experience capable to reflect your interests and your preferences and to allow an easier access to our services. Cookies do not store any personal information about the user and no identifiable data are stored. The use of cookies may be disabled by personalizing the computer settings: it is possible to enable the clearing of all cookies or to set a warning message every time cookies are stored. Keep on surfing the website if there is no need to change the cookie application. Visit AboutCookies.org to obtain further information about cookies and their influence on your surfing experience.
The type of cookies we use
"Strictly necessary" cookies
These cookies are fundamental in order to enable you to move around the website and use its features, such as entering the website reserved areas. Without these cookies some essential services – such as for compiling a form for a competitive exam – may not be used.
"Performance" cookies
These cookies collect information about how the users use a website, e.g. which are the most visited pages and if error messages are received from web pages. These cookies do not collect information that could identify a visitor. All collected information are aggregated and therefore anonymous. These cookies are only used to improve the operation of a website. By using our website the user accepts the installation of such cookies on her/his device.
"Functionality" cookies
Cookies allow the website to remember the choices made by the user (such as name, language or origin) and they supply modern and personalized functions. These cookies may also be used to remember the changes made to the text or font size and to other sections of web pages which may be personalized. They may be used to supply you the required services, such as watching a video or the comments on a blog. The information collected by these cookies may be made anonymous and incapable to control your surfing activity on other websites. By using our website the user accepts the installation of such cookies on her/his device.
Here following is the table containing the cookies used in our website.
www.ied.edu PHPSESSID Session IED Tecnico di sessione
.ied.edu _ga 2 anni Google Analytics
.ied.edu _ga 24 ore Google Analytics
.doubleclick.net id 2 anni Google Advertising
How to manage cookies on your computer
If you want to allow cookies on our website, please follow the steps below:
Google Chrome
1. Click on "Tools" in the upper part of the browser window and select "Options"
2. Click on "Under the Hood", find the "Privacy" section and select the "Content settings" button. 3. Now select "Allow local data to be set"
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0
1. Click on "Tools" in the upper part of the browser window and select "Internet Options"; now click on the "Privacy" tab.
2. While allowing cookies on your browser, make sure that the privacy level is set to medium or lower.
3. The use of cookies is not allowed if the privacy level is over medium.
Mozilla Firefox
1. Click on "Tools" in the upper part of the browser window and select "Options"
2. Select the Privacy icon
3. Click on Cookie and select "I allow the websites to use cookies"
Safari on OSX
1. Click on 'Safari' in the upper part of the browser window and select the option "Preferences"
2. Click on 'Safety' and on "Accept cookies"
3. Select "Only from the website"
Mozilla and Netscape on OSX
1. Click on 'Mozilla' or 'Netscape' in the upper part of the browser window and select the option "Preferences".
2. Scroll down till displaying the cookies in "Privacy and safety".
3. Select "Allow cookies only for the source website"
1. Click on "Menu" in the upper part of the browser window and select "Settings"
2. Select "Preferences" and then the icon "Advanced".
3. Select the option "Allow cookies"
Google Analytics
This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google"). Google Analytics uses "cookies", which are text files placed on your computer to help the website analyse how visitors use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your anonymous IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States . Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.
You may also refuse the collection of data generated by the cookie and related to your use of the website (including your IP address) as well as the processing of the data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plugin available by clicking on the link below http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en


text:
Private Practice Series Finale: Did Addison Get Her Happy Ending?
[Warning: This story contains major spoilers from the series finale of Private Practice. Read at your own risk!]
When Addison (Kate Walsh) showed up at Seattle Grace in the Season 1 finale of Grey's Anatomy, we hated her. She was the salmon-scrub wearing wife of Derek, and darn it, we wanted McDreamy and Mer to get their happy ending. But by the time executive producer Shonda Rhimes sent Addison packing for the Private Practice spin-off, we truly loved her. We hoped she'd find a way to have a child. We hoped she'd find love. We'd hope she'd find happiness. In Tuesday's Private Practice series finale, Addison had finally found it all.
But it was the supporting cast who really shined in the final hour - seriously, Addison and Jake (Benjamin Bratt) got married within the first five minutes and from there, it was about saying goodbye to everyone else. Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) and James (Matt Long) have their relationship destined for marriage. Violet (Amy Brenneman) has come to love herself without being in a relationship. Sheldon (Brian Benben) found the love of his life in Miranda (Diane Farr), despite the fact that her life will be cut short because of cancer. Cooper (Paul Adelstein) and Charlotte (KaDee Strickland) found a good balance in being parents so Coop is not a miserable stay-at-home father. What Rhimes was trying to say with these stories is that life goes on. Our favorite Seaside Wellness doctors are still out there living their lives.
The cast of Private Practice says farewell after six seasons
With Naomi (Audra McDonald) and Sam (Taye Diggs), however, Rhimes certainly hoped to bring Private full circle. When we first met them, the longtime sweethearts had broken up. They both went out into the world and tried to find other relationships that may make them happy. But in the end, they were always meant to be. It seemed only fitting that they would walk down the aisle and eventually have another child together, despite the fact that Sam was against more children.
It was Violet's story line, however, that spoke directly to the audience. It was Rhimes, through Violet, telling her longtime patient of six years - aka six seasons - that it was time to move on. Everything will be OK. We will be OK. And on the bright side, like the patient (played brilliantly by Parenthood's Sarah Ramos) who had Le Cordon Bleu in Paris to look forward to, we have Grey's Anatomy and Scandal to give us our weekly Shondaland fix. It also seemed apt for Violet to then share with the group her next book about joy and life and a journey that would be called... Private Practice.
Did you enjoy the journey of Private Practice? Will you miss the series? Hit the comments with your thoughts!
View original Private Practice Series Finale: Did Addison Get Her Happy Ending? at TVGuide.com
Related Articles on TVGuide.com
Other Links From TVGuide.com


text:
Bring the Cruise Book to Life with this Multimedia Presentation
This CD will Exceed your Expectations
You would be purchasing an actual copy of the 1976 Company 276 memory book "The anchor on CD. Even if this was not your company it will bring back memories guaranteed
This would make a great gift for yourself or someone you know who may have attended Boot Camp in the 60s, 70s or 80s. A nice rare military collectors item. You will not be disappointed. Most of the books photos are generic to any company that went through the training. About 25% of the book is specific to Company 276 in 1977.
The Book includes over 100 pages of high resolution color and black and white images of life in naval boot camp. More than 200 general pictures depicting life in Boot Camp no matter when you went through it.
Here are just some of the topics and images on this CD:
Additional Bonus:


text:
Data Change Request -
Before you request to edit the company profile on 6sense, Let us know who you are... Please enter a valid business email id.
ZoomInfo Vs Lead Liaison : In-Depth Comparison
Not sure if ZoomInfo, or Lead Liaison is the better choice for your needs? No problem! 6sense comparison helps you make the best decision. Take a look at categories where ZoomInfo and Lead Liaison compete, current customers, market share, category ranking. Still uncertain? Compare the similarities and differences between ZoomInfo vs Lead Liaison customers by industry, by geography and by buying patterns.


text:
Forecast maps are are no longer available on the old site.
Please use the maps on the new website instead, thanks for understanding!
As time passes, it is more and more difficult to maintain the old Windguru website...
All the efforts are now invested into continuous development of the new site. New Windguru features and updates require many internal changes that may cause conflicts and troubles to the old site.
Please consider switching to the new site.
It may take some time to get used to it, but you will not regret.
For all of you ultra conservative old school users ;-) I'll do my best and try to keep the old forecast display as long as possible, but please understand that it is too complicated to keep everything as it was forever.
Thanks for understanding!
© 2000 - 2023 www.windguru.cz | Nutzungsbedingungen | Hilfe | Kontakt |


text:
What Happened to Sophie Wilder: A Novel
By Chris Beha
Source: One-Minute Book Reviews
This guide for reading groups and others was not authorized or approved by the author, publisher or agent for the book. It is copyrighted by Janice Harayda and is only for your personal use. Its sale or reproduction is illegal except by public libraries, which may use it in their in-house reading programs. Other groups that would like to use this guide should link to it or check the "Contact" page on One-Minute Book Reviews to learn how to request permission to reproduce it.
A young convert to Catholicism faces a test of her faith when she cares for a dying man in the first novel by Chris Beha, an associate editor of Harper's. Sophie Wilder fell in love with Charlie Blakeman in college and drops back into his life when they are both in their 20s and have had books published. Sophie has re-entered Charlie's life, it seems, to tell him about her recent, troubling experience of caring for a dying man. What Happened to Sophie Wilder is Charlie's attempt to make sense of Sophie's life from his perspective as a New Yorker who has abandoned traditional religious practices. Told from two alternating viewpoints, the novel raises such questions as: Why do we need stories, whether religious or literary? And at what point does an investment in a "story" become irreversible?
10 Discussion Questions for What Happened to Sophie Wilder:
1. A lively debate has occurred online about whether Sophie's conversion to Catholicism was convincing. How plausible did it seem to you?
2. The publisher of this novel says that it is about "the redemptive power of storytelling." Do you agree? If so, why? If not, what is the novel "about"?
3. The novel tells Sophie's story from two alternating points of view. The odd-numbered chapters give Charlie's first-person point of view. The even-numbered chapters use third-person narration. Who is telling the story in even-numbered chapters? Some critics believe they represent Charlie's attempt to tell the story from Sophie's perspective. Do you agree?
4. The phrase "What happened to?" has more than one meaning. It can signify curiosity (whatever became of?) or alarm (what went wrong?). In this novel, the phrase has a third, metafictional meaning: What happens to Sophie Wilder at the end of the novel What Happened to Sophie Wilder? What do you think happens to her at the end?
5. Did you find the ending of the book — really, two endings — satisfying? Why?
6. A critic for Publishers Weekly said it's hard to sympathize with Sophie even when she's trying to do the right thing, "because she's so blatantly indifferent to the harm she causes." What, if anything, did you admire about Sophie?
7. Chris Beha dealt indirectly with a meaning of the title of the novel in the online magazine the Nervous Breakdown. He wrote: "What Charlie does discover about what happened to Sophie has nothing to do with the success of her first book or her failure to write another. Instead, it has to do with the time she spent caring for her husband's dying father, and the way the watching him suffer has changed her. That is, it has to do with the world's hard realities." Did the novel convince you that Sophie's fate had more do with Bill Crane than with Charlie or with her writing career?
8. This novel has conspicuous literary symbols, such as the Victorian glass aquarium in the Greenwich Village townhouse in which Charlie and his cousin Max rent rooms. What does the fish tank represent? Who or what are the tropical fish? You might interpret the tank in either a secular sense (it's an expensive object from earlier era) or in a sacred one (in some contexts, fish symbolize Christianity).
9. "We had been given something beautiful, asked only to watch over it," Charlie says at the end of the novel. "We'd been careless, and now it was all in ruin." He's talking about the aquarium he and Max were supposed to tend, but his words may have more than one meaning. What you think he's saying in these lines?
10. What Happened to Sophie Wilder has drawn raves from some critics, such as David G. Myers of Commentary, who said that it is "a remarkable first novel" that "should especially be read by those who have given up on contemporary literature." The book has had mixed reviews from others, including Sarah Towers, who wrote in the New York Times Book Review: "In places the novel suffers from too much distancing exposition — the price of so many flashbacks to Charlie and Sophie's college days. And yet, like Charlie, I found myself absorbed throughout with the mystery of Sophie." How would you sum up the novel?
These questions relate to the religious ideas in What Happened to Sophie Wilder:
1. Sophie begins to read her dying father-in-law the story of how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, found in the Bible in John 11:1-44. ("Now Jesus loved Martha …) He cuts her off. Why did Sophie choose that passage? Why did Bill reject it?
2. The Bible says that Christians will receive the gifts listed in Galatians 5:22: "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering [i.e., patience], gentleness, goodness, faith." Which, if any, of those traits does Sophie show? Does it matter, in a literary sense, whether or not she shows any?
3. Sophie converted to Catholicism after reading the monk Thomas Merton's spiritual autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, and each of the two main sections of the novel has seven chapters. (The title of Merton's book refers to the mountain of purgatory in Dante's Divine Comedy.) Does the division of the novel into seven-chapter sections have meaning? If so, what is it? In what ways is Sophie in her own purgatory?
Vital statistics:
What Happened to Sophie Wilder. By Christopher R. Beha. Tin House, 256 pp., $15.95. Published: May 2012. A review of the novel appeared on One-Minute Book Reviews on Oct. 14, 2012.
Publishers' reading group guides are marketing tools designed to sell books. They typically encourage cheerleading instead of a frank discussion of the merits or demerits of an author's work. Totally Unauthorized Reading Group Guides are an alternative to those commercial guides and are intended to give books a fuller context and to promote a more stimulating conversation about them.
One-Minute Book Reviews does not accept free books or other promotional materials from editors, publishers or authors, and all of its reviews and guides offer an independent evaluation of books. Totally Unauthorized Reading Group Guides appear frequently but not on a regular schedule. You can avoid missing the guides by subscribing to the RSS feed or following Jan on Twitter.
Janice Harayda is a novelist and award-winning critic who has been the book columnist for Glamour, the Plain Dealer book editor and a vice-president of the National Book Critics Circle. You can follow Jan on Twitter by clicking on the "Follow" button in the right sidebar.
© 2012 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.


text:
- Shape: Rectangle
- Size: 4'-9" x 6'-6" / 144.78 CM x 198.12 CM
- Type: Persian
- Foundation: Cotton
- Pile: Wool
- Weave: Hand-Knotted
- Colors Used: Blue, Green, Peach, Coral, Gray
- Manufactured In: Turkey
Shop 5 Feet x 6 Feet Handmade Persian Rectangle Rug > Design# CCSR46784 > Size: 4'-9" x 6'-6" [ONLINE ONLY]. Shop authentic handmade area rugs from Carpet Culture, get Free shipping all over US.
This is online-only product. This rug is not available to see in the store.
Order Processing Time: 1 Business Day
Shipping Duration: 3-5 Business Days
Note: During the shipping, the texture of the rug will be pressed and there may be some visible creases. Please note that, this is not a defect and it should be unnoticeable after few days.
All rug sizes are approximate. We have made every effort to display the colors of our rugs as accurately as possible. But the colors may vary depending on display types and the physical lighting condition of your space.


text:
The Washington Nationals announced this evening that 2009 #1 draft pick Stephen Strasburg will make his highly-anticipated major league debut on June 8th at Nationals Park. The team had just released a coupon code "for Teddy's fans" to use during that week's series vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates.
This evening, some tickets are still available at half price in the outfield corners ($18) and outfield mezzanine ($15). Order at Nationals.com using Coupon Code "TEDDY".
Good luck.
9:30pm UPDATE:
Only singles left now, but lower bowl seats still available at $18 with coupon.
10:15pm UPDATE:
Sold out.
Congrats to those who got in.
As always, 400 Grandstand-level seats (Section 401/402) will be available for $5.00 each at the gate before the game. No coupon required.


text:
California/Nevada Interscholastic Ski and Snowboard Federation Championships: Ski and snowboard races wrap up
The California Nevada Interscholastic Ski and Snowboard Federation (CNISSF) Championships finished up on Thursday with fresh snow and beautiful, sunny weather at the Mt. Shasta Ski Park.
The last of four days of snowboard and ski racing ended with the boys and girls ski slalom races. The ski slalom is shorter than the giant slalom race and the gates are placed closer together, forcing competitors to make faster and tighter turns.
For the second straight day, Mount Shasta High School had another strong performance.
In the girls race, Mariah Althaus came in second in the CNISSF, finishing with a combined time of 1:21.79. She came in third the day before in the giant slalom ski race.
In the boys race, Harrison Keane came in fifth. with a combined time of 1:18.08. He came in fourth in the giant slalom ski race.
Christine Holst came in 18th for the Mount Shasta girls and Shannon Keane was 22nd. Nicole Kishe of Yreka had a good showing and came in 20th place.
In the boys race for Mount Shasta, Spencer Posl was 14th, Weston Stroud was 16th, Tommy Hake 19th and Clayton Poore 20th. The Mount Shasta boys ski team won the state title for the fourth straight year and the combined boys and girls ski teams came in second.
The highest Yreka boys finisher was Matthew Wood, who came in 34th. Lucas Ericson of Butte Valley was 25th and Max Michelon of Weed was 35th.
The Wednesday and Thursday's ski races had the added benefit of fresh snow and colder temperatures while Monday and Tuesday's snowboard racers had to contend with warmer temperatures and softer, slower snow.
Stuart Miller, a skier with the Weed High School team said Thursday's conditions were an improvement. "It's better than the soft slushy snow because the course holds up better. With the slushy snow, the turns get rutted out really fast."
Even with the colder temperatures, gatekeepers along the course struggled to keep it smooth because the new snow that had fallen in the past 48 hours had not packed tightly yet.
Several runs throughout the day had to be done over due to interference from gatekeepers rushing onto the course raking, shoveling and smoothing the turns.


text:
'Stand Up Guys' is like Walken, Arkin and Pacino playing their greatest hits
Watching "Stand Up Guys" feels akin to seeing an old, favorite rock band getting back together for one last gig after decades apart. They're not as energetic as they once were, their vocals aren't as powerful, but an obvious camaraderie still exists as well as a touch of rebellion.
Christopher Walken, Al Pacino and Alan Arkin are all performing their greatest hits in this con-man comedy, albeit within dialed-down versions of their familiar screen personae. These no longer go to 11; Pacino mercifully isn't in full-on "Hooah!" mode. But there's enough humor and tenderness in Fisher Stevens' film to make it a passably enjoyable experience for the most part.
Some plot twists toward the end do feel too convenient and contrived, however. The real joys of Noah Haidle's script come from the moments that aren't so forced, when these veteran actors are talking, catching up and bouncing off each other. The three have never appeared in a movie together before, yet they effortlessly elevate what might have been some corny material just by showing up and being such pros.
At the film's start, Pacino's character, Val, has just been released from prison after 28 years for refusing to give up one of his associates during a shoot-out — hence the title. Val's sacrifice makes him a stand-up guy. His best friend, Doc (Walken), is there to pick him up for a wild night on the town, which may also be Val's last night; he's still a target of a vengeful mobster despite his newfound freedom (and his age).
The two meander around Los Angeles, looking for some trouble to get into, complete with the kind of clunky jokes about Viagra and new-fangled keyless car ignitions that you might expect. They also pay a couple of visits to an awkwardly cast Lucy Punch as a woman who runs a brothel out of her home.
But things pick up significantly once they decide to bust their old pal, Hirsch (Arkin), out of the retirement home in the middle of the night for some spontaneous adventures. They actively seek out danger as a means of fending off death.
Walken is quiet, still and absurdly halting — the well-armed brains of the operation but with a kind heart. Pacino is the wild man who still wants to party but there's also a vulnerability to him that's appealing. And there isn't nearly enough of Arkin, the dryly gruff former getaway driver who finds he still has some skills left when he's called upon to use them.
Watching "Stand Up Guys" made me want to watch a documentary instead of Walken, Pacino and Arkin driving around the city, sharing stories, comparing notes, laughing and riffing in the dead of night.


text:
Hitting a wall in Berlin
The question of whether Barack Obama's second term will be a failure was answered in the affirmative before his Berlin debacle, which has recast the question, which now is: Will this term be silly, even scary in its detachment from reality?
Before Berlin, Obama set his steep downward trajectory by squandering the most precious post-election months on gun-control futilities, and by a subsequent storm of scandals that have made his unvarying project — ever bigger, more expansive, more intrusive and more coercive government — more repulsive. Then came Wednesday's pratfall in Berlin.
There he vowed energetic measures against global warming ("the global threat of our time"). The 16-year pause of this warming was not predicted by, and is not explained by, the climate models for which, in his strange understanding of respect for science, he has forsworn skepticism.
Regarding another threat, he spoke an almost meaningless sentence that is an exquisite example of why his rhetoric cannot withstand close reading: "We may strike blows against terrorist networks, but if we ignore the instability and intolerance that fuels extremism, our own freedom will eventually be endangered." So, "instability and intolerance" are to blame for terrorism? Instability where? Intolerance of what by whom "fuels" terrorists? Terrorism is a tactic of destabilization. Intolerance is, for terrorists, a virtue.
It is axiomatic: Arms control is impossible until it is unimportant. This is because arms control is an arena of competition in which nations negotiate only those limits that advance their interests. Nevertheless, Obama trotted out another golden oldie when he vowed to resuscitate the cadaver of nuclear arms control with Russia. As though Russia's arsenal is a pressing problem. And as though there is reason to think President Vladimir Putin, who calls the Soviet Union's collapse "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century," is interested in reducing the arsenal that is the basis of his otherwise Third World country's claim to great power status.
Shifting his strange focus from Russia's nuclear weapons, Obama said "we can ... reject the nuclear weaponization that North Korea and Iran may be seeking." Were Obama given to saying such stuff off the cuff, this would be a good reason for handcuffing him to a teleprompter. But, amazingly, such stuff is put on his teleprompter and, even more amazingly, he reads it aloud.
Neither the people who wrote those words nor he who spoke them can be taken seriously. North Korea and Iran may be seeking nuclear weapons? North Korea may have such weapons. Evidently Obama still entertains doubts that Iran is seeking them.
In Northern Ireland before going to Berlin, Obama sat next to Putin, whose demeanor when he is in Obama's presence radiate disdain. There Obama said: "With respect to Syria, we do have differing perspectives on the problem, but we share an interest in reducing the violence." Differing perspectives?
Obama wants to reduce the violence by coaxing Syria's Bashar al-Assad, who is winning the war, to attend a conference at which he negotiates the surrender of his power. Putin wants to reduce the violence by helping — with lavish materiel assistance and by preventing diplomacy that interferes — Assad complete the destruction of his enemies.
Napoleon said: "If you start to take Vienna — take Vienna." Douglas MacArthur said that all military disasters can be explained by two words: "Too late." Regarding Syria, Obama is tentative and, if he insists on the folly of intervening, tardy. He is giving Putin a golden opportunity to humiliate the nation responsible for the "catastrophe." In a contest between a dilettante and a dictator, bet on the latter.
Obama's vanity is a wonder of the world that never loses its power to astonish, but really: Is everyone in his orbit too lost in raptures of admiration to warn him against delivering a speech soggy with banalities and bromides in a city that remembers John Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" and Ronald Reagan's "Tear down this wall"? With German Chancellor Angela Merkel sitting nearby, Obama began his speech: "As I've said, Angela and I don't exactly look like previous German and American leaders." It was mildly amusing in Berlin in 2008, but hardly a Noel Coward-like witticism worth recycling.
His look is just not that interesting. And after being pointless in Berlin, neither is he, other than for the surrealism of his second term.
George Will writes this column for The Washington Post. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
The Talker: Happy St. Patrick's Day
Staff Writer
Something to talk about
Bring on the green: It's time to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! Participants stepped off in parades across the country this weekend. Check out the festivities.
Trending on Twitter
Selection Sunday is out of the way, and now 68 college teams are headed to postseason basketball, with No. 1 seeds going to Arizona, Florida, Virginia and Wichita State. #MarchMadness
Hot video
Using a helicopter, Sonoma County, Calif., sheriff's deputies rescued a dog that became stranded after falling over a cliff along the Sonoma coast over the weekend.
More Content Now


text:
More Artists Join GRAMMY Nominations Concert
Tonight's GRAMMY nominations concert is adding even more star power to its lineup.
Janelle Monáe will now join fun., who are expected to earn themselves a nomination or two, for a performance of their song "We Are Young." Sheryl Crow, Alabama-based country group Little Big Town, country singer Chris Young and folk trio The Lumineers, who many predict will get a Best New Artist nom, will also join the show as presenters.
The eclectic lineup for the one-hour live show will also include performances by Maroon 5, Ne-Yo, Luke Bryan, Hunter Hayes and The Who while The Band Perry and Dierks Bentley will come together to pay tribute to Johnny Cash.
They all join hosts Taylor Swift and LL Cool J when the show airs live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
Watch The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!- Countdown To Music's Biggest Night live tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on CBS.
- Shannon Carlin, CBS Local
for more features.


text:
About six weeks ago, users of Facebook's Android application noticed that they were being asked to install a new version—without going to the Google Play app store.
Android is far more permissive than iOS regarding the installation of third-party applications, even allowing installation from third-party sources if the user explicitly allows it. However, it's unusual for applications delivered through the official Google store to receive updates outside of the store's updating mechanism.
Google has now changed the Google Play store polices in an apparent attempt to avoid Facebook-like end runs around store-delivered updates. Under the "Dangerous Products" section of the Google Play developer policies, Google now states that "[a]n app downloaded from Google Play may not modify, replace or update its own APK binary code using any method other than Google Play's update mechanism." A Droid-Life article says the language update occurred Thursday. APK (standing for application package file) is the file format used to install applications on Android.
The app store policy already banned "applications that cause users to unknowingly download or install applications from sources outside of Google Play," but did not explicitly address updates until yesterday.
There are certainly legitimate reasons to ban such a practice—it's easy to imagine the creator of a malicious application enticing users with a seemingly legit app and then updating it with malware. No one expects Facebook to do that, but the change in Google's legalese could force the company to stop updating its app outside the Google Play store.
We've asked Google if this is a completely new policy or merely a more explicit statement of a preexisting policy. We also asked how it will be enforced and whether developers who violate the policy will be forced to submit new versions of their application. We contacted Facebook to ask if it believes its Android app violates the policy and, if so, whether Facebook will remove the auto-updating functionality. (This would be the regular Facebook app, not the new Facebook Home.) We'll provide an update if we get any new information.
Google does in some cases remove applications from Google Play when they violate store policies, but may provide a warning to the developer before doing so. Facebook could thus avoid having its app pulled off the store if it changes how it works in a timely manner.


text:
Today in the news: Jodi Arias guilty of first-degree murder
News to Know
A jury found Jodi Arias guilty of first-degree murder today, the Associated Press reports. Arias initially denied involvement in the killing of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander. She then blamed the murder on masked intruders, then changed her story again and claimed she had murdered Alexander in self-defense. He was stabbed almost 30 times, shot in the forehead and had his throat slit before being stuffed in his shower. His body was found five days later by friends. Arias claimed Alexander attacked her, and she shot him in self-defense. She also claimed to have no memory of stabbing him. The jury will now deliberate on whether the murder had "aggravating" factors, such as being committed in an especially cruel or depraved manner. This will be a factor in deciding whether Arias will be executed, sentenced to life in prison, or prison with a chance of release after 25 years.
Quote of note
"Today, we wrote a new chapter in our history and proved, once again, justice and equality continue to move forward in Delaware." - Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, following the signing of a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. Delaware became the 11th state to legalize same-sex marriage today when the bill was signed into law, according to CNN.
Hot video: Amanda Berry's sister asks media to respect their privacy
More Content Now


text: We supply replacement for Hp G62 fan at low price. The fan is made from A grade quality parts, 100% brand new tested in good condition, tested throughout the manufacturing process to match the original fan's performance. We guarantee the all products with a 30days money back and full six-months warranty. Welcome to order the fan, save your money and time now.


text:
Don't see an event on our Calendar? Click the link below to submit your event and we will add it into our calendar. Give as much information as you can. All non-profits are free to submit. Members of the Destination Oscoda for Success Program are also free to submit. Submit your event by clicking here. You can also scroll to the bottom of this page to enter your event directly into the form.
We process submissions between 9AM – 11AM Monday through Friday so submit your event in advance! Please note that visiting the Outings Page will show Recurring Events, Library Events, and other outing ideas!
- This event has passed.
Summer Social Skills Club
August 12, 2022 @ 2:00 pm
Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the event organizers on this calendar do not reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of Destination Oscoda. Attendance and participation are deemed at your own risk and anyone attending or taking part in the event must use good judgement, obey all laws and take reasonable care to avoid any injury to their person or property.


text:
Laura Sanders recently wrote an interesting article, titled "SPECIALIS REVELIO! It's not magic, it's neuroscience," in ScienceNews. Here are some excerpts.
* * *
Skill in manipulating people's perceptions has earned magicians a new group of spellbound fans: Scientists seeking to learn how the eyes and brain perceive — or don't perceive — reality.
"The interest for magic has been there for a long time," says Gustav Kuhn, a neuroscientist at Durham University in England and former performing magician. "What is new is that we have all these techniques to get a better idea of the inner workings of these principles."
A recent brain imaging study by Kuhn and his colleagues revealed which regions of the brain are active when people watch a magician do something impossible, such as make a coin disappear. Another research group's work on monkeys suggests that two separate kinds of brain cells are critical to visual attention. One group of cells enhances focus on what a person is paying attention to, and the other actively represses interest in everything else. A magician's real trick, then, may lie in coaxing the suppressing brain cells so that a spectator ignores the performer's actions precisely when and where required.
Using magic to understand attention and consciousness could have applications in education and medicine, including work on attention impairments.
Imaging the impossible
Kuhn and his collaborators performed brain scans while subjects watched videos of real magicians performing tricks, including coins that disappear and cigarettes that are torn and miraculously put back together. Volunteers in a control group watched videos in which no magic happened (the cigarette remained torn), or in which something surprising, but not magical, took place (the magician used the cigarette to comb his hair). Including the surprise condition allows researchers to separate the effects of witnessing a magic trick from those of the unexpected.
In terms of brain activity patterns, watching a magic trick was clearly different from watching a surprising event. Researchers saw a "striking" level of activity solely in the left hemisphere only when participants watched a magic trick, Kuhn says. Such a clear hemisphere separation is unusual, he adds, and may represent the brain's attempt to reconcile the conflict between what is witnessed and what is thought possible. The two brain regions activated in the left hemisphere — the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex — are thought to be important for both detecting and resolving these types of conflicts.
Masters of suppression
Exactly how the brain attends to one thing and ignores another has been mysterious. Jose-Manuel Alonso of the SUNY State College of Optometry in New York City thinks that the answer may lie in brain cells that actively suppress information deemed irrelevant by the brain. These cells are just as important, if not more so, than cells that enhance attention on a particular thing, says Alonso. "And that is a very new idea . . . . When you focus your attention very hard at a certain point to detect something, two things happen: Your attention to that thing increases, and your attention to everything else decreases."
Alonso and his colleagues recently identified a select group of brain cells in monkeys that cause the brain to "freeze the world" by blocking out all irrelevant signals and allowing the brain to focus on one paramount task. Counter to what others had predicted, the team found that the brain cells that enhance attention are distinct from those that suppress attention. Published in the August 2008 Nature Neuroscience, the study showed that these brain cells can't switch jobs depending on where the focus is — a finding Alonso calls "a total surprise."
The work also shows that as a task gets more difficult, both the enhancement of essential information and suppression of nonessential information intensify. As a monkey tried to detect quicker, more subtle changes in the color of an object, both types of cells grew more active.
Alonso says magicians can "attract your attention with something very powerful, and create a huge suppression in regions to make you blind." In the magic world, "the more interest [magicians] manage to draw, the stronger the suppression that they will get."
Looking but not seeing
In the French Drop trick [see video below], a magician holds a coin in the left hand and pretends to pass the coin to the right hand, which remains empty. "What's critical is that the magician looks at the empty hand. He pays riveted attention to the hand that is empty," researcher Stephen Macknik says.
Several experiments have now shown that people can stare directly at something and not see it. For a study published in Current Biology in 2006, Kuhn and his colleagues tracked where people gazed as they watched a magician throw a ball into the air several times. On the last throw, the magician only pretended to toss the ball. Still, spectators claimed to have seen the ball launch and then miraculously disappear in midair. But here's the trick: In most cases, subjects kept their eyes on the magician's face. Only when the ball was actually at the top part of the screen did participants look there. Yet the brain perceived the ball in the air, overriding the actual visual information.
Daniel Simons of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his colleagues asked whether more perceptive people succumb less easily to inattentional blindness, which is when a person doesn't perceive something because the mind, not the eyes, wanders. In a paper in the April Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, the researchers report that people who are very good at paying attention had no advantage in performing a visual task that required noticing something unexpected. Task difficulty was what mattered. Few participants could spot a more subtle change, while most could spot an easy one. The results suggest that magicians may be tapping in to some universal property of the human brain.
"We're good at focusing attention," says Simons. "It's what the visual system was built to do." Inattentional blindness, he says, is a by-product, a necessary consequence, of our visual system allowing us to focus intently on a scene.
Magical experiments
Martinez-Conde and Macknik plan to study the effects of laughter on attention. Magicians have the audience in stitches throughout a performance. When the audience is laughing, the magician has the opportunity to act unnoticed. Understanding how emotional states can affect perception and attention may lead to more effective ways to treat people who have attention problems. "Scientifically, that can tell us a lot about the interaction between emotion and attention, of both the normally functioning brain and what happens in a diseased state," says Martinez-Conde.
He expects that the study of consciousness and the mind will benefit enormously from teaming up with magicians. "We're just at the beginning," Macknik says. "It's been very gratifying so far, but it's only going to get better."
* * *
You can read the entire article here. For some related Situationist posts, see "Brain Magic," "Magic is in the Mind," and "The Situation of Illusion" or click here for a collection of posts on illusion.


text:
Irrespective Insolence
Sharon Hill ??
Does anyone know SHARON HILL ???
NoNo ??
If it's "Doubtful News", that's a "Hint and a Half" that it's "Doubtful" it's "News" [1]
In fact, I first received confirmation that what flows down-Hill was definitely, NO doubtfully, NOT news, when she displayed her "propensity" for "density" on #Forbes [2]
"Orac", "The Skeptics™" Dope-on-a-Rope Pope. claimed:
4/19/2013 – "also obsessively read anything posted about Eric Merola or Stanislaw Burzynski on any social media."
5/7/2013 – "If "Orac" was anywhere close to being 75% sure, I would have already reviewed "Doubtful News," which received "free pub" on Forbes
"The Skeptics™" must have got into Liz Szabo's ear, since she subsequently short-sheeted herself by being unable to answer her own question
Maybe Szabo shoulda asked the F.D.A. !!
All that Jerry Mosemak (@jmosemak), Connie Mosemak, and Mosemak Creative (@mosemakcreative) wanted to know was what Twitter thought of their Twerk
Bob Blaskiewicz, fresh off the AstroTurf campaign with "Orac's" orifice, seemed ready to really be headed, right in to rectify on Liz's
Liz, do you really want this anywhere around your backside ?
Bob-B obviously confused Liz Szabo with being a "journalist", when she is a "reporter"
Ms. Szabo, is obviously NOT a "journalist"
Liz Szabo (USA TODAY) – health reporter, medical reporter covering cancer, heart disease, pediatrics, public health, women's health, kids/parenting, …
The question is, how did a "reporter" like Liz Szabo, manage to get her name as the reporter "headlining" "The Skeptics™" "report," instead of Robert Hanashiro ?
Hanashiro had under his belt:
8/3/2011 – Urine test may help predict prostate cancer risk [4]
The best Szabo could cite as support was:
3/19/2008 – "Prostate cancer treatments' sexual, urinary side effects compared" [5]
Exactly how did Liz Szabo "win" that "pissing contest" ?
Even a monkey can report the news:
10/18/2013 – Monkeys 'talk in turns' [6]
If @LizSzabo wanted to do a REAL article on "selling false hope to cancer patients", then USA TODAY should have done an "investigation" on something like THIS:
8/25/2010, Wednesday [7]
Canadian Man Sentenced to 33 Months (2 years 9 months) in Prison for Selling Counterfeit Cancer Drugs Using the Internet
Hazim Gaber, 22, of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada sentenced in Phoenix, Arizona by U.S. District Court Judge James A. Teilborg
Ordered to pay $128,724 ($75,000 fine $53,724 in restitution)
Serve 3 years of supervised release following prison term for selling counterfeit cancer drugs using Internet
6/30/2009 – indicted by federal grand jury in Phoenix, Arizona: 5 counts of wire fraud for selling counterfeit cancer drugs through website DCAdvice.com
7/25/2009 – arrested Frankfurt, Germany
12/18/2009 – extradited to United States
5/2010 – plea hearing: admitted selling what he falsely claimed was experimental cancer drug sodium dichloroacetate, also known as DCA, to at least 65 victims (.10/2007 – 11/2007) in:
1. United States
2. Canada
3. United Kingdom
4. Belgium
5. the Netherlands
According to plea agreement, charged:
$23.68 for 10 grams of purported DCA
$45.52 for 20 grams
$110.27 for 100 grams
plus shipping
Admitted sent victims white powdery substance later determined through laboratory tests to contain:
1. dextrin
2. dextrose
3. lactose
4. starch
Contained no DCA
According to court documents, along with counterfeit DCA, packages also contained fraudulent certificate of analysis from fictitious laboratory and instructions on how dilute and ingest bogus DCA
DCA is experimental cancer drug not yet approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in United States
According to plea agreement knew that website DCAdvice.com contained false claims it was only legal supplier of DCA and falsely claimed it was associated with University of Alberta
According to information contained in plea agreement, DCA is odorless, colorless, inexpensive, relatively non-toxic experimental cancer drug highly sought by cancer patients
Doctor at University of Alberta in Canada published report in early 2007 summarizing results of study, which showed DCA caused regression in several cancers, including:
1. breast cancer
2. cancerous brain tumors
3. lung cancer
According to information contained in plea agreement, DCA cannot be prescribed by medical doctor in:
1. United States
2. Canada
1. it is not approved for use in patients with cancer
2. nor is DCA available in pharmacies
As part of plea agreement, agreed to:
1. forfeit
2. cancel
1. website
2. domain name
3. Internet services account
related to fraud scheme
"Hazim Gaber went from selling false hope to cancer patients to now spending 33 months in a U.S. prison,"
said Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of Criminal Division
"Criminals often seek to exploit the most vulnerable of victims – but offering fake, unapproved medication to cancer patients reaches a new low"
"Today's sentence shows that cyber criminals who prey on the seriously ill cannot elude justice simply by committing crimes outside of our borders."
"Gaber used the Internet to victimize people already suffering from the effects of cancer,"
said Dennis K. Burke, U.S. Attorney for District of Arizona
"Now he will go to prison for this bogus business and heartless fraud."
"The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office are committed to pursuing individuals who prey on those who are living with the affects of cancer,"
said Nathan Gray, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Phoenix Division
"Today's sentencing illustrates international law enforcement partners working together to send a message not to use the Internet to perpetuate fraud, especially against those afflicted with a serious medical condition."
Sentencing part of larger department-wide effort led by Department of Justice Task Force on Intellectual Property (IP Task Force)
Attorney General Eric Holder created IP Task Force to combat growing number of:
1. domestic
2. international
3. intellectual property crimes
1. health
2. safety
of American consumers
safeguard nation's economic security against those who seek to profit illegally from American creativity, innovation and hard work
IP Task Force seeks to strengthen intellectual property rights protection through heightened:
1. civil enforcement
2. criminal enforcement
greater coordination among:
1. federal
2. state
3. local
law enforcement partners
increased focus on international enforcement efforts, including reinforcing relationships with key:
1. foreign partners
2. U.S. industry leaders
To learn more about IP Task Force, go to http://www.justice.gov/dag/iptaskforce/
1. Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of Criminal Division
2. U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke for District of Arizona
3. FBI Special Agent in Charge of Phoenix Field Office Nathan T. Gray
Case prosecuted by:
1. Trial Attorney Thomas S. Dougherty of Criminal Division's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section
2. Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Sexton of U.S. Attorney's Office for District of Arizona
Significant assistance provided by:
1. Alberta Justice Office of Special Prosecutions-Edmonton
2. Alberta Partnership Against Cross Border Fraud
3. Competition Bureau of Canada
4. Edmonton Police Service
5. Federal Trade Commission
6. U.S. Postal Inspection Service
Criminal Division's Office of International Affairs provided assistance in case
Case investigated by Phoenix FBI Cyber Squad
10-958 Criminal Division
7/30/2013 – United States to Settle Cancer Research Grant Fraud [8]
Northwestern University to Pay Nearly $3 Million to United States to Settle Cancer Research Grant Fraud Claims
$2.93 million – Northwestern University will pay United States to settle claims of cancer research grant fraud by former researcher and physician at university's Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Center for Cancer in Chicago
Agreed to settlement in federal False Claims Act lawsuit after government investigated claims made by former employee and whistleblower who will receive portion of settlement
Alledgedly allowed researcher, Dr. Charles L. Bennett, to submit false claims under research grants from National Institutes of Health
Settlement covers improper claims Dr. Bennett submitted for reimbursement from federal grants (1/1/2003 – 8/31/2010) for:
1. food
2. hotels
3. travel
4. other expenses
5. professional and consulting services
6. subcontracts
that benefited:
1. Dr. Bennett
2. family
3. friends
Allegations made in civil lawsuit filed under seal 2009 by Melissa Theis, (2007 and 2008) worked as purchasing coordinator in hematology and oncology at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine, will receive $498,100 in settlement proceeds
Suit named defendants:
1. Dr. Bennett
2. Dr. Steven T. Rosen
3. Lurie Cancer Center
4. Northwestern
Alleged defendants submitted false claims to United States when:
1. Dr. Bennett
2. Dr. Rosen
directed and authorized spending of grant funds on goods and services that did not meet applicable NIH and government grant guidelines
Government contends has certain civil claims against Northwestern arising out of Northwestern's improper submission of claims to NIH for grant expenditures for items that were for personal benefit of:
1. Dr. Bennett
2. family
3. friends
incurred in connection with grants as to which he was principal investigator
Northwestern, fully cooperated during investigation, did not admit liability as part of settlement
Agreement releases university and all its affiliates and employees, other than Dr. Bennett, from claims made in whistleblower lawsuit
Northwestern agreed to pay settlement within 14 business days
Agreement covers allegations university submitted false claims to NIH for costs Dr. Bennett incurred on grant-funded research projects involving:
1. adverse drug-events
2. blood disorder known as thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura
3. multiple myeloma drugs
4. quality of care for cancer patients
Dr. Bennett allegedly billed federal grants for:
1. family trips
2. meals
3. hotels
1. himself
2. friends
and "consulting fees" for unqualified:
1. friends
2. family members
1. brother
2. cousin
At Dr. Bennett's request, Northwestern allegedly improperly subcontracted with various universities for services that were paid for by NIH grants
Allegations investigated by:
1. Federal Bureau of Investigation
2. National Institutes of Health
3. U.S. Attorney's Office
4. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General
"Allowing researchers to use federal grant money to pay for personal travel, hotels, and meals, and to hire unqualified friends and relatives as 'consultants' violates the public's trust,"
said Gary S. Shapiro, United States Attorney for Northern District of Illinois
"This settlement, combined with the willingness of insiders to report fraud, should help deter such misconduct, but when it doesn't, federal grant recipients who allow the system to be manipulated should know that we will aggressively pursue all available legal remedies,"
he added
"The mismanagement or improper expenditure of grant funds is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,"
said Lamont Pugh III, Special Agent-in-Charge of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General – Chicago Region
"The OIG will continue to diligently investigate allegations of this nature to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being properly utilized."
Cory B. Nelson, Special Agent-in-Charge of Chicago Office of Federal Bureau of Investigation said:
"The FBI takes allegations of fraud seriously, especially those allegations from insiders who are often in the best position to detect wrongdoing long before it would otherwise come to the attention of law enforcement."
United States represented by:
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kurt N. Lindland
Under federal False Claims Act, defendants may be liable for triple amount of actual damages and civil penalties between $5,500 and $11,000 for each violation
Individual whistleblowers may be eligible to receive between 15 and 30 percent of amount of any recovery
Show EmorME the Money ! [9]
8/28/2013, Wednesday
$1.5 Million – Emory University False Claims Act Investigation
University Overbilled Medicare and Medicaid for Patients Enrolled in Clinical Trial Research at Emory's Winship Cancer Institute
Settlement with Emory University
$1.5 million – agreed to pay to settle claims it violated False Claims Act by billing:
1. Medicaid
2. Medicare
for clinical trial services not permitted by:
1. Medicaid rules
2. Medicare rules
Providers generally not permitted to bill Medicare for medical care and services for which clinical trial sponsor agreed to pay
1. United States
2. State of Georgia
alleged Emory University billed:
1. Medicaid
2. Medicare
for services clinical trial sponsor agreed to pay
(and, in some cases, actually did pay, thereby resulting in Emory's being paid twice for the same service)
Investigation of Emory University revealed institution's clinical trial false billing and led to settlement
Civil settlement resolves lawsuit filed by Elizabeth Elliot under qui tam, whistleblower, provisions of False Claims Act
Ms. Elliot will receive share of settlement payment that resolves qui tam suit
United States Attorney's Office for Northern District of Georgia
Attorney General Sam Olens announced reached settlement
"This settlement demonstrates our office's continued commitment to protect crucial Medicare and Medicaid dollars,"
said United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates
"Treatment of cancer is expensive, and Medicare and Medicaid dollars should be reserved for patients who need services that properly may be billed to these programs."
"Our investigation of Emory University revealed the institution's clinical trial false billing and led to today's settlement,"
said Derrick L. Jackson, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General for Atlanta region
"Protecting Medicare — and taxpayer dollars — remains a top priority."
Mark F. Giuliano, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Atlanta Field Office, stated:
"Federal funds, to include those of Medicare and Medicaid, are limited and are to be used as intended"
"The FBI will continue to play a role in enforcing federal law that governs the use of these much needed funds."
Attorney General Sam Olens stated,
"Cancer research is paramount to saving and extending lives"
"However, strict rules govern the use of Georgia Medicaid dollars"
"My office takes seriously its obligation to ensure that these resources are used properly."
Case investigated by:
1. Federal Bureau of Investigation
2. Georgia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit
3. United States Attorney's Office for Northern District of Georgia
4. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Inspector General
Civil settlement reached by Assistant United States Attorney Darcy F. Coty
For further information please contact U.S. Attorney's Public Affairs Office at email@example.com
Internet address for HomePage for U.S. Attorney's Office for Northern District of Georgia
Emory Settlement Agreement
5/24/1993 – Court Testimony Of Nicholas Patronas, MD:
Pg. 122
"We have done– we have an experimental protocol at the NIH where we inject a chemotherapeutic agent through the carotid artery, the artery that goes to the brain, and we have three survivals with this technique, by providing massive amounts of chemotherapeutic drugs to the brain that harbors the tumor"
"And we destroy the tumor, but we destroy a large part of the brain as well, and the patients became severely handicapped, and a life that's not worth living"
Pg. 123
"And so I have three cases with this particular experimental protocol which resulted in killing the tumor, but a large part of the healthy brain as well"
"So overall the protocol was abandoned and is not any more in effect because of the serious side effects that we witnessed"
Nicholas J. Patronas
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Sharon Hill, you're just a footnote to this article, because all you did was "cut-and-paste", and try to pass off David H. Gorski, M.D., Ph.D., FACS and Bob Blaskiewicz as "reliable sources"
You've gotta be kidding me !!!
P.S. A fifth-grader can "cut-and-paste"
Are you smarter than a 5th-grader ?
[1] – 11/15/2013 – Burzynski exposed in USA Today:
[2] – 5/6/2013 – Critiquing "The Skeptic" Burzynski Critics: A Film Producer, A Cancer Doctor, And Their Critics (page 10):
[3] – 5/7/2013 – Critiquing: Is Eric Merola issuing bogus DMCA takedown notices against critics of Stanislaw Burzynski?:
[4] – 8/3/2011 – Urine test may help predict prostate cancer risk:
[5] – 3/19/2008 – "Prostate cancer treatments' sexual, urinary side effects compared":
[6] – 10/18/2013 – Monkeys 'talk in turns':
[7] – 8/2010
[8] – 7/30/2013
[9] – 8/28/2013 – Emory University
[10] – 5/24/1993


text:
This evening's show will feature cookbook author Poopa Dweck. Her cookbook Aromas of Aleppo took several decades from when she first got the idea until it came to fruition. It is a cultural history of the 2500 year old community of Jews in Syria.
Mrs. Dweck has devoted her life to celebrating the legacy of her community and preserving it here in the West. This is her fourth cookbook, having first authored three volumes of Deal Delights. As a young woman she felt compelled to write down the recipes she grew up with and which existed only in the minds of older cooks, which led her to to document the Syrian Jewish cuisine with these beautiful produced book.
Poopa Dweck is a very active community leader in Deal, where she lives with her husband and five children, and she frequently lectures and performs cooking demonstrations. She's also the founder of the Jesse Dweck City Learning Center – where young men and women from the Syrian Jewish community learn Torah, their traditions their heritage in Deal, NJ, and New York City. She cofounded the Sephardic Women's Organization.
This evening at 8:00 pm (Eastern Time), we will have Poopa Dweck on The Kosher Scene Radio Show. Please listen to an exciting conversation about a fascinating chapter that spans over more than two and half millennia of Jewish experience, about a community that dates back to the days of King David.
Last week we had two Talk radio shows, if you missed them or would like to hear them again you can do so here: A Conversation with Menachem Lubinsky and Healthy and Delicious versus Delicious at any Cost
Please tune us in this evening on BlogTalkRadio, at 8:00 pm (Eastern Time). Hope to see there!


text:
Blog posts by category:
solve problems, including missing number problems, using number facts, place value, and more complex addition and subtraction
Comments are closed.
Recent Blog posts:
- Vlog Ep #10: Involving Parents in Their Children's Math Education
- Vlog Ep #09: Fake Math and Pseudocontexts
- Vlog Ep #08: Teaching Math Unshackled from Standards and Curriculum Documents
- Vlog Ep #07: How to Use Technology to Teach K-6 Math
- Vlog Ep #06: Look Around You for Real Life Contexts for K-6 Math
- Vlog Ep #05: Kids Figure Stuff Out (And What That Means For Math Education)
- Vlog Ep #04: Math-Anxious Parents Produce Anxious Kids Who Know Less Math (research report)
- The Most Challenging K-6 Math Topic (Survey Results)
- Teach Times Tables Without Apologies
- Math is Important, REALLY Important
- Math in the News: Babies Can Do More Math Than We May Have Realized
- Math in the News: Better Ways to Teach Math to Aboriginal Students
- Math in the News: Is Rote Learning the Secret Behind Chinese Mathematics Success?
- K-6 Math in the News: Censuses, Counting People and Math
- K-6 Math in the News: Schools Failing to Recognize Kids Who Don't Fit In?
- K-6 Math in the News: Supermarket Math Fails
- K-6 Math in the News: Pokémon Go and Math for Kids
- K-6 Math in the News: Everyone CAN Succeed at Maths
- K-6 Math in the News: Facebook Flower Math Puzzle
- Sixth-Graders Learn Business Skills in Mathematics Class
- Asian Kids Beat Out the West in Math Again
- Teach Measurement Using a Rain Gauge
- Teaching a Great Math Lesson Part 1: Capture Students' Attention!
- Welcome to Professor Pete's Classroom


text:
Focal Points has frequently featured posts about the distinctly Soviet era-sounding Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Facility. The CMRR-NF, as it's known, is a project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory of such mind-numbing expense that it boggles the mind (doggles the boon?).
A watchdog association called the Los Alamos Study Group (LASG) has been spearheading efforts to stop the CMRR-NF in its tracks. Permit me to excerpt an April 25 post that I blurbed: "Nuclear watchdogs take to the courtroom to halt the manufacture of a new facility to build the part that makes nuclear weapons explode."
Forces Opposed to Dangerous, Extravagant Nuke Project Get Day in Court
If you're not a regular reader, you may be surprised to learn the federal government seeks to ram through a new nuclear facility that's intolerable on a number of counts.
1. Its intended purpose is to build plutonium pits — the living, breathing heart of a nuclear weapons, where the chain reaction occurs. In other words, mad science at its most extreme.
2. Its projected cost is greater than all the work done on the Manhattan Project in New Mexico during World War II.
3. The land the building will occupy is seismically, uh, challenged (subject to seismic shocks twice as great as those experienced at Fukushima).
At the time the New Mexico nuclear watchdog group, the Los Alamos Study Group, was about to present its long-gestating lawsuit against the NNSA and the Department of Energy. In a recent LASG newsletter, Executive Director Greg Mello explains.
At 9:00 am Wednesday April 27th, in the Brazos Courtroom . . . of the Federal Courthouse . . . Albuquerque, the Honorable Judge Judith Herrera will hear arguments from the [LASG] and the federal defendants — the Department of Energy . . . and the [NNSA] over whether final design of the CMRR-NF . . . should be halted pending analysis of alternatives to the project.
The two opposing motions:
. . . whether a) to throw out [LASG's] lawsuit . . . or b) temporarily pause the project . . . in order to give the court the opportunity to hear evidence on the [LASG's] contention that the project cannot proceed without a valid, new environmental impact statement [EIS] [to address, primarily, the sesmic risk].
Hearing held, the LASG is cautiously optimistic. Noted nuclear physicist Frank von Hippel, who, during Perestroika, helped sell the Russians on monitoring and verification (as chronicled in David Hoffman's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Dead Hand), testified. LASG's lawyer asked von Hippel why he thought a new study of alternatives to the CMRR-NF was called? In part, he replied:
The need for large-scale pit production has vanished. In 2003, the [NNSA] was arguing that the [United States] needed the capability to produce 125 to 450 pits per year by 2020 to replace the pits in the US weapon stockpile that would be 30 to 40 years old by then. . . .But, in 2006, we learned that US pits were so well made that, according to a Congressionally-mandated review of Los Alamos and Livermore studies on pit aging, "Most primary types have credible minimum lifetimes in excess of 100 years as regards aging of plutonium." [Besides, although] the Los Alamos and Livermore National Laboratories have been lobbying to develop and manufacture new-design "reliable replacement warheads," and the Bush Administration supported the idea, Congress refused in 2007 to fund the program.
Also the updated U.S. Nuclear Posture Review Report mandates that
In any decision to [develop] warhead LEPs [Life Extension Programs], the United States will give strong preference to options for refurbishment or reuse. . . . the preferred strategy is to reuse existing pits where necessary, or simply refurbish the balance of the warhead. . . . As of the end of Fiscal Year 2009, the total size of the U.S. warhead stockpile was about 5,000 warheads . . . and about 14,000 pits recovered from [decommissioned] warheads . . . were in storage at the Pantex warhead assembly/disassembly facility in Amarillo.
In other words
There will be no shortage of pits to reuse.
Hope those concerned that the United States would run out of these infernal little internal destruction machines will rest easy now.
Also testifying was executive director Mello. When asked by LASG's lawyer about the CMRR-NF's estimated cost, he responded.
In November 2010, the White House estimated the budget at "$3.7 to 5.8 billion." Defendants recently pushed back the projected date of a reliable cost estimate to 2015.
In fact (emphasis added)
In its submissions to Congress, NNSA is just writing "TBD" in the future cost and schedule columns.
Echoing von Hippel (or vice versa; not sure who testified first), Mello explained that the Department of Energy's science advisory group, which is referred to as JASON
. . . reviewed research done at LANL and Livermore on pit life. JASON concurred with these labs that most U.S. pits would last for a century or more. There are also extra pits for almost every kind of warhead, thousands in all, and these reserves [as von Hippel also mentioned] are growing as warheads are dismantled. . . . Production of new plutonium pits is not necessary to maintain a very large, diverse, powerful nuclear weapons stockpile for several decades to come.
Meanwhile the NNSA is attempting to ram through a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS), instead of an entirely new EIS. But
. . . issuing a SEIS at this point could not achieve NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act] compliance [since NNSA] is . . . in the process of executing it as fast as it can. . . . To enforce NEPA, the Court should put the brakes on this juggernaut and then look for a way to achieve an objective NEPA analysis.
After all, Mello reminded us:
The Administration has made agreements with Senators to complete the Nuclear Facility.
Von Hippel expanded on this when the LASG lawyer asked "Why then, with this huge cost over-run and lack of mission, is the Administration pushing so hard to build the CMRR-NF?"
This appears to be primarily because a number of Republican Senators [led by Jon Kyl (R-AZ)] extracted a commitment from the Administration to build the CMRR-NF and a facility for producing weapon-components [at another] site in exchange for their votes to ratify the New START Treaty.
But, of course,
In the end, Senator Kyl did not vote to ratify the New START Treaty.
Von Hippel then speculates on how Kyl's double-cross, as it were, might have affect the administration's current attitude toward the CMRR-NF.
My guess is that, if this Court required it, some in the Obama Administration would welcome being forced to have a relook at alternatives to the CMRR-NF.
With so much invested in nuclear disarmament as an achievement that the Obama administration can brandish, scarcely does it wish to be played again by the opposition. As it is, the sincerity of its disarmament intentions is called into question by the CMRR-NF. Don't think nations such as Iran aren't watching the progress CMRR-NF and posing the hypothetical question "And you wonder what we want with nuclear weapons?"


text:
Texas plant that blew up carried $1M policy
McALLEN - The Texas fertilizer plant that exploded last month, killing 14 people, injuring more than 200 and causing tens of millions of dollars in damage to the surrounding area had only $1 million in liability coverage, lawyers said Saturday.
Tyler lawyer Randy C. Roberts said he and other attorneys who have filed lawsuits against West Fertilizer's owners were told Thursday the plant carried only $1 million in liability insurance. Brook Laskey, an attorney hired by the plant's insurer to represent West Fertilizer Co., confirmed the amount Saturday in an email to The Associated Press, after the Dallas Morning News first reported it.
"The bottom line is, this lack of insurance coverage is just consistent with the overall lack of responsibility we've seen from the fertilizer plant, starting from the fact that from day one they have yet to acknowledge responsibility," Roberts said.
Roberts said he expects the plant's owner to ask a judge to divide the $1 million in insurance money among the plaintiffs, several of whom he represents, and then file for bankruptcy.
He said he wasn't surprised that the plant was carrying such a small policy.
"It's rare for Texas to require insurance for any kind of hazardous activity," he said. "We have very little oversight of hazardous activities and even less regulation."
On April 17, a fire at the West Fertilizer Co. in West, a town 70 miles south of Dallas, was quickly followed by an earth-shaking explosion that left a 90-foot wide crater and damaged homes, schools and nursing home within a 37-block blast zone. Among those killed were 10 emergency responders.
State and federal investigators haven't determined what caused the blast.
The plant had reported just months before the blast that it had the capacity to store 270 tons of ammonium nitrate, but it was unknown how much was there at the time of the explosion.
Roberts said that even without a conclusive cause, negligence lawsuits can proceed.
"The law allows courts to presume negligence when something happens that would not ordinarily occur but for negligence," Roberts said. "A fire might be an unavoidable accident, but an explosion of this magnitude resulting from a fire is not an unavoidable accident."
Lawyers will look for any other assets the company might have and search for other responsible parties, he said.


text:
John Bachar Remembers Michael Reardon
Free soloist Michael Reardon died in a freak accident, and is remembered by John Bachar.
In June, Michael Reardon knocked on my door at Mammoth Lakes for an easy day of free soloing at Clark Canyon on the East Side of the Sierra Nevada. I can only try to describe how much fun it was to go "soloing" with a good friend like Michael. We climbed about 20 feet apart, mixing inane conversations with the intense subliminal concentration that functions automatically when you get off the deck. That's the beauty and power of free solo. Deep inside us, without conscious effort we have the innate ability to perform physically without any thought. The act reconnects us with our primal being. I guess that's why Michael and I looked forward to days like that at Clark—comfortably cruising 5.9s and 5.10s while holding a bullshitting session in the sky. Michael kept us laughing the whole day! At one point we were debating whether down-climbing a pitch counts as doing a pitch. I said, "no;" he said, "yes," and that I was just "too much of a pussy to realize it"—joking, of course. I said he didn't have the balls to make it to the true summit and couldn't handle the descent. And on and on, both of us laughing out of control.
My first contact with Michael Reardon was over the phone. He called and said he wanted to do a documentary about me and my climbing career. I was flattered that anyone was interested in some old dude who didn't climb hard anymore. I was also skeptical because I had been approached by other filmmakers who wanted the same thing. Michael told me his credentials, Hollywood projects completed, etc., but I wasn't that interested until he said he climbed. Not just climbed, but he said he free soloed!
Within weeks he came up to visit and I wanted to see him climb, to shake him down and see if he was full of hot air like the other Hollywood types I had encountered. I took him to the Fault Line boulders and showed him some of the harder problems. He did them all in a few attempts. Not only was he very strong, he was extremely energetic, always asking mindbender questions and pushing the philosophical envelope— which I liked instantly.
Shortly after, he returned with his wife, Marci, who operated the camera and sound gear, and they started interviewing me for the documentary. It went well. Michael asked questions that were easy to deal with. It was like he could read my mind—probably because he'd been in similar situations himself.
Over the months it took to produce the film, we became friends. We'd talk for hours about all aspects of free soloing. He'd tell me about his recent exploits, and I'd tell him of mine. The film trailer came out, and we toured a bit together to promote it. These were exceptionally fun times—partying with Henry Barber and Duane Raleigh at the Taos Film Festival was some of the funniest shit I'd done in a long time.
One day Michael called and said he had soloed Equinox (5.12c) at Joshua Tree. I was blown away. Equinox is stout. We talked about his mindset and mental preparation. He was extremely comfortable with soloing, and we had deep conversations about onsight versus rehearsed, keeping the mind "empty," tapping into the innate core, how to "not-think," and all the other crazy stuff that goes through the mind of a soloist. I have only been able to have these conversations with three or four climbers in my entire climbing career. Michael was so full of life that the concept of death couldn't be applied to him. He examined every aspect of the soloing "process" as if it was a science. Every day he went climbing, he was going to go home to his wife, Marci, and daughter, Nikki—that's just how it was.
Months later he invited me down for a TV shoot of him at Tahquitz, and I met him a day early to solo. After doing three pretty long routes I was beat, but he kept going and soloed two more 800-foot 5.9s—he lapped those things in half an hour, including descents. His ability to block and concentrate were supreme. He had a great sense of tempo and rhythm. His slow contemplative approach was ever present, yet he just ran up the routes. His ability to flow, equally tight, was among the best I have ever witnessed.
Regardless of what you did with Michael, you were going to laugh. As his dear friend Anastasia Frangos said, "Even though sometimes the content of his conversations made you feel a bit dirty, it was 'fun dirty,' like getting away with stealing a kiss from your dream girl in church. It is wrong, but all about good feelings inside." Michael had an unusual gift for cracking jokes that were at the edge of social acceptability. Like a professional comic, he'd make you think twice in a millisecond and wait there, grinning, for you to realize he wasn't serious. He did this all the time and always had people busting their guts.
Michael loved people and climbing and mixed the two well. He lived it loud and proud. I think that is why so much controversy surrounded him. His love of the spotlight made people question his authenticity and intent. Many climbers are loners, but Michael was a socialite. He loved sharing his world with everyone he could and was so original that he was hard to comprehend. I don't know if people really know how much he actually did. Those of us who knew him couldn't help but love him and want to spend more time with him.
I do have to speak to his climbing adventures. As an artist in the free-solo realm, he wanted to know what people thought. How did his artistic "solo monuments" affect the world? Did he leave an impression on climbing? We talked about this many times. Would a concert violinist practice just as much if he/she were on a deserted island with no one to listen to the music? Maybe yes, maybe no. Some people want their music to be heard.
Michael was a great climber, but more than that he was a family man. Being a great father and husband was his number-one concern, and those who climbed with him will attest to that. "Dude, let's hang out and do some more routes over the next few days!" I'd say.
"Sorry, gotta go back to the family tonight," he'd reply. And off he'd go.
Michael often asked me what he needed to do to reach the next level. I told him about my training theories and strategies, and that he needed to hang out at the crags for more extended periods to dial in a particular area. This was the only way to really break some boundaries. Though he recognized this, he chose to develop his talents secondarily to his life with his family. To me this makes his climbing accomplishments even more impressive. I don't think I could have ever achieved the things Michael did if I'd had the same constraints. He was a natural athlete. He worked hard at perfecting his climbing, but if he had climbed full time, he could have done much more.
Decades from now, climbers will recount Michael's exceptional ascents, such as his solo of Romantic Warrior and his giant solo days at Josh, and be inspired in ways we can't imagine. I believe Michael felt this and that constituted his music to the world. Free soloists have left a powerful impression on other people about the beauty and strength of the human spirit and what can be accomplished if we use our hearts to the fullest. Michael Reardon's message to the world is, "If you truly believe, you can do it."
Also Read
John Bachar: What I've Learned
John Bachar And The Bachar-Yerian First Ascent


text:
VD1-No.01 | P4AZTP
VD1-No.01 | P4AZTP
Sale Sold out
Regular price $50.00
Regular priceUnit price per
Sale price
Sold "As-Is" as a unique and rare, "one-off" Test Print made during the original print run for the show. These were printed to test inks, experiment with different paper colors, and dial-in print registration.
- Approx. 16" x 20" on 100#
- All Prints are Marked as Test Print & Signed by Artist
- Carefully Rolled in tissue + heavyweight packing paper
- Condition: Mint ( Light Scuffs ~ x 1 Listed )
*Due to demand this item is limited to only 1 per order / home.*
Please be respectful and allow others a chance. Any requests or questions can be sent using the drop down below and are considered on a per case basis.